The Four Phases
by hesitance
Summary: Every girl knows about the four stages of a crush.  Watch Tenten start to go through it, with a little... gentle guidance... from a couple of friends.  Will she ever get to acceptance?  NejiTen and minor NaruHina.
1. Phase One: Denial

7/7/7 is just about my favorite date ever, because 7 is one of my lucky numbers, so I'm starting this, my new story today! It's called The Four Phases, about the four phases of a crush which are:

Denial

Rage

Neutrality

Acceptance

The couple, like usual, is NejiTen, with some NaruHina, maybe more in later chapters. (Keyword is maybe.) This hasn't been beta-ed or anything, so I'm sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes that I might have made. Now on to the story!

The Four Phases: Phase One: Denial

Tenten never had a particularly large number of female friends. That's why when a couple years back, Sakura had invited her to a sleepover with Ino and Hinata, she accepted, with the knowledge that they would surely make some crazy accusations. Of course, she was a little afraid of the girls, so she brought a couple of kunai, some shuriken, a katana or two and various other weapons that were in scrolls scattered across her person.

When the girls pulled off her jacket (it was January at the time) and found three large sealing scrolls, to say they were slightly shocked was just about the understatement of the century.

After that little mishap, they still, for some odd reason, kept inviting her and for some odder reason, (or so many thought) she kept coming. Spending time with Neji and Lee was fun, but every now and again she liked to talk to people of the same gender.

The girls chatted, gossiped, did hair, did makeup, giggled, guffawed, and much more, always at the spacious Hyuuga compound. There was one sleepover a month, every month, day depending on who-was-where-when.

They really had become close friends over those last three and a half years. Well, close enough that Sakura and Ino were able to confront her very bluntly on a subject most were too scared to think about bringing up.

"Tennie?" Sakura asked quietly with mischievous undertones while looking down at her friend laying on the ground, flipping through a magazine, the epitome of a serene, happy teenage girl. "What are your thoughts of Neji-san?" Hearing the name of her team mate, previously mentioned brunette lifted her head lazily to look the green eyed kunoichi in the eye.

"He's a very nice person, if slightly cold. Is there a reason for this, Saku?" She smiled brightly until the end of the second sentence, when she narrowed her eyes and her smile became demonic. The other girls (Ino and Hinata) stood next to Sakura to circle her.

"Well, Tennie," Ino started, "we were merely curious. After all, we know you're crushing on somebody…"

"How did you infer that?" the weapons mistress interrupted, with a slight mood. "I haven't said anything on the subject."

"R-Remember that chain letter I sent you? The one that said the stuff about colors relating to your romantic state?" Hinata said. When Tenten shook her head 'no,' she brought out a copy of the said document that went like this:

_From: (part disabled because of possible virus. For more information click here)_

_Sent: Sunday, June 9, 5:44 PM_

_To: (more)_

_Subject: FW: Fwd: Fw: Fwd: White_

_This is really cute! Keep passing it on! Choose the color that represents you romantically. If you aren't honest, you'll have bad luck for the rest of your life!_

_Pink: Taken and happy_

_Lime Green: Taken and not satisfied_

_Forest Green: Taken and uncaring_

_Orange: Taken and breaking up_

_Yellow: Single and loving it_

_Navy: Single and hating it_

_Black: Single and unsure how to feel_

_Gray: Single and uncaring_

_Baby blue: Single and in love_

_White: Single with feelings that you aren't sure of_

_Indigo: Single and crushing_

_Send this to at least three of your closest friends with in the hour to avoid eternal relationship problems. For every extra person you send it to, that's a little bit more luck for you!_

Tenten scowled. "And so you automatically assumed that it was Neji, and the feeling was something involving love, or at least extreme like?"

"Ummm… yeah… Were we wrong in that?" questioned the only blonde of the group, after which Sakura promptly kicked her in the shin 'subtly.'

"Forehead, what was that for," she 'whispered in the ear of her friend.

"You weren't supposed to say that we thought she was crushing on him! God, you're such a pig, pig." Their two female counterparts sweat dropped with a deep sigh. Was this the smartest kunoichi of their age group?

By this time, Sakura and Ino had completely forgotten about Hinata and Tenten, starting to really yell at each other.

"I mean, so what, every one knows we want Neji and Tenten to get together. It's not that big of a deal that I hinted it to her so back off!'

"She probably didn't know until you told her! I can't believe that you said that! How are we going to do it now? Surprise is pretty much all we had!"

The argument continued until all members of the group were flustered, for one reason or another.

"SHUT UP!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU PEOPLE! ALL I WANT TO DO IS CHILL WITH FRIENDS, BUT YOU JERKS CAN'T STOP FIGHTING, AND TENNIE AND MYSELF ARE SUFFERING FOR YOUR STUPIDITY!!" screamed an angry Hinata, to everyone's surprise. The others, of course, shut their mouths immediately.

"W-Well," said Hinata, breaking the odd silence caused by her, "I'll go g-get us some soul food." She was sort of subdued because of her outburst, so she stumbled out of the door to grab snacks.

"That was weird."

"Yeppers."

"You could say that again, blondie!"

"Ummm…. Tennie? We're sorry for being so nosy but… you'd just look so cute with him!" Ino said. Said girl went to sulk in a corner of Hinata's huge room, facing the lilac wall dejectedly.

At this point, Hinata came back in with popcorn, chips, Oreos, cookies, and milk for every one. Their brunette companion ran back as soon as she laid her eyes on the Oreos.

"Score!!!" she shrieked before grabbing two and stuffing them into her mouth in a way that was incredibly un-ladylike, enough to make Hinata blush, while Sakura and Ino grinned. Ah, the joys of a tomboy.

About a half hour later, the four girls were stuffed to the limit, except for Tenten, who always has room for more food, especially her precious Oreos. Ino and Sakura were more than ready for the next portion of their sleepover: truth or dare.

"So guys… we're going to play truth or dare now… who wants to go first?" said Ino. The pink haired medic next to her automatically volunteered, and went, after receiving the consent of her peers.

"Hinata, truth or dare?"

The Hyuuga heiress took a deep breath before speaking. "Dare, Sakura-chan."

Her friend glanced at the other girls before giving the fateful dare. "I dare you, Hyuuga Hinata, to go to Naruto's house right now, wake him up if he's asleep, and ask him to go to get ramen with you the day after tomorrow at five." The dark haired girl widened her eyes and blushed so deeply that they were afraid of her fainting, but she nodded regardless and made her way out of the room, promising to be back soon.

"Why not tomorrow, Saku?" Tenten asked. "I'm busy then. That means I won't be able to spy on them!" Tenten and Ino both sighed and rolled their eyes dramatically.

For the next fifteen minutes, the girls were reading the same magazines they had been previously. Then Hinata returned.

"How did it go???" was everyone's question as soon as the shy girl walked in the door, trembling violently.. "What did he say?"

"H-Hey guys. It went like this…"

**Flashback Time!!!!**

**She was finally at Naruto-kun's house. She knocked on the door twice, but with out an answer. Oh gosh, she'd have to go in and wake him up, wouldn't she? This wasn't good! She wrapped her chubby little fingers (they were a little bit too boyish for her) around the door knob, and pushed softly. It opened. Hinata shook her head while giggling. What shinobi besides Naruto-kun left their door unlocked. That boy! She stepped into his apartment.**

**The laughter stopped instantly because not only was she in Naruto's apartment, she was in his bed room. There were only three rooms in the whole place: a bathroom, a living room/bedroom, and a kitchen. This place barely existed compared to her home! The shame of being so ignorant about his condition almost made her cry. Poor Naruto-kun! To come home to an empty house, especially one like this every single day must be awful. This only put her deeper in love with the boy.**

**Now, now, Hinata, she scolded herself, we can't get carried away, after all, we're here for a reason. She crept up to the bed of her crush, only to find, wide eyed…. (drum roll……) that it was empty. Where was Naruto? She used her Byakugan to see that he wasn't even in the apartment, no one was. (Stupid, she said mentally, I should have done that in the beginning. Hinata was jerked out of her thoughts with the door opening. With an inhuman (incivilian, really) speed, she went into the kitchen, but it was hopeless.**

**"Who's in there? I know you're there," called out the tired voice of the only ninja in history (that matters) who wears orange. She walked out of the kitchen and Naruto blinked when he saw her.**

**"Hinata-chan, what are you doing here?" he asked. She flushed hearing the friendly honorific.**

**"N-Naruto-k-ku-un, I had a… ummm… q-question for y-you. I try… I tried knocking but you weren't there. I'm- I'm… I'm really s-sorry!" Her lighter haired 'associate' chuckled. **

**"It's fine, Hinata-chan. What was your question?"**

**"Well," she started, finally overcoming her stutter, "I was just curious if you… you know… would like to go get ramen with me tomorrow?" She almost fainted, but managed to keep herself together. **

**He was infinitely clueless. "Sure, Hinata-chan. I'm fine with that! Could I bring Sakura-chan too?" Sakura again? She should have known. He couldn't get it, that boy. She was almost ready to burst out in tears right then and there, but managed to hold it in.**

**"Sure, Naruto. I don't mind freaking at all. I'll be there at five." She shot him a cold glare before stalking out of his apartment. Oh wait, what? Crap! What had she done? Naruto-kun probably hated her. The evil side of her kicked in. Screw him, he deserves it. Let's go back to the girls fast, so we can kill that whore, Sakura! **

**I can't cry, I can't cry, she told herself on the way home. She walked into the doors of her room, not crying, but shaking to tell the girls.**

**Flashback's Over!!!!!**

"THAT JERK!" screeched her friends, as soon as she finished telling her story. "I will kill him!" murmured Sakura. Ino glared darkly at nothing in particular, but Tenten was smiling.

"What's wrong with you, Tennie? Why are you SMILING?"

"Why of course, Hinata stood up for her self to that jerk! Aren't you guys proud?" Tenten replied.

Sakura and Ino blinked before running up and hugging the girl.

Five minutes later, every one had settled and they were ready for the next turn, glancing up at Hinata eagerly.

"Tenten, truth or dare?" she asked, energized from what she did with Naruto, and smiling, believe it or not. The bun haired weapons expert chose truth. Hinata quietly consulted with her other friends before turning back to Tenten.

"Tell me, what are you feeling towards Neji right now?"

"Well right now, I'm annoyed at him because he broke my 8th favorite katana the other day! I had to get a new one to replace it!"

"But… but… but…." Her friends stuttered, appalled by her extremely anti-climactic answer.

"You didn't ask for in general, and if you did, I would have said I have absolutely no romantic feelings for him at all. I, for the last time, am not in love with Hyuuga Neji!"

The other girls just shook their heads and said that it was probably time to get to bed, after all, it was two in the morning. As soon as they knew she was asleep, the other three sat up.

"Stage one: denial, complete."

I'm sorry if it's not very good! Please, please, I'll sell my soul for a review!


	2. Phase Two: Rage: Part One

**I'm updating! This is my first multi-chapter story out of anything, fan or non fan, that I've ever written. Hehe. I feel better now that that's said. On to the fans!**

**My reviewers and/or alert putter-onners and/or favorites putter-onners were: sugar rush101, Shikyo Yaiba, Blossoms of Spring, bluegirl19 (still wondering if sisters count), smurfetster, xroyal.momonessx, jumarien, Powerful-phoenix, Jacqulin, Datenshi Yamashita, and Bad-Tenten, Miyazaki Sayuri, Dreaming101, B. Q. , CyclonePhoenix, Baka'sAngel, Kradobby, and last but not least Digital98 (I'm sorry if I spelled any of those wrong or missed anyone.)**

**So many reviews! I want at least ten more for this chapter!**

**Botan is one of the dreaded OCs- don't worry, he's not a major character.**

**Disclaimer: Wait while I take the time to come up with a witty disclaimer. Nope, not getting anything, so I guess I'll just leave it at: I don't own Naruto. If you do, please tell me. I'll buy it for twenty bucks, a green paperclip, and a CD I just burned.**

**I'm sorry that the update took this long. My grandfather just died a couple of days ago, and I'll be going out of town for the funeral. I'm not sure how much I'll write, if at all, while there.**

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* * *

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The Four Phases: Phase Two: Rage: Part One

Time's flown by, Tenten mused, after receiving the invitation for the next day's monthly sleepover. Seems like just yesterday we all got together to beat up Naruto for being so clueless to Hinata. Now, after something both parties involved refused to talk about, Naruto and Hinata were avoiding each other, which was odd, but Hinata had started to have a lot more random outbursts. That left her friends a little bit disturbed.

Tenten was anticipating the coming day, she had just been informed that she had training with her old team tomorrow. That meant waking up super early to spar with Neji. Joy. Glancing at the clock to realize that it was almost eleven thirty, she decided it was probably time to fall asleep. So she did.

* * *

_Beep, beep, beep._ What was that? Her alarm clock? No, that didn't beep. What beeps? The smoke alarm!!!! What was on fire? The scared kunoichi ran out of her bedroom… and straight into the wall. As everything went black, she had only one thought:

* * *

_White. Every where she looked she saw white. Well, it wasn't exactly white. It was that cream color that his eyes were. Normally it calmed her, but this was a nightmare. As long as she was in the white, she couldn't think straight. She ran and ran and ran, until it was black. Even though the white confused her so horribly, the black was awful._

* * *

He had been sitting next to her for about three hours now, ever since she didn't show up for their team training. She always showed up for training, no matter what. He wasn't a prodigy for nothing; he knew that she felt that it was her duty to her team to show up regardless of circumstances. That's why he instantly decided to check her apartment when she never came for training, and that's why he was the one that found her on the ground, unconscious. 

Hyuuga Neji wasn't one to be sweet and romantic, otherwise, he would have held her hand or kissed her on the cheek, but he didn't, because that just wasn't him. It's not that he didn't want to be sweet, the barriers that he had put on himself since his father's death, that ice cubic look and nature, had seeped so far into himself that he couldn't change with any ease. The lie had damaged him, more than anyone knew. More than his conscious self admitted to knowing, actually.

She was stirring. Her hair, which had been let down to push out of the way for tests on her head, was spread around and curling. He was one of the few people that knew her hair was naturally super curly. (Though he rarely actually saw it that way. In reality, he had never seen her hair like that, but he had briefly imagined it) He demanded himself to focus as his cousin, the Yamanaka girl, and the pink haired one burst into the room.

"Neji-nii-san!"

"Hinata-sama," he said, nodding in her direction politely. The other two just ran up to Tenten's bed.

"Aw… that poor thing. I wonder if she'll come to the sleepover tonight," pondered the annoying pink haired one.

"Forehead, shut up, you're going to wake her!"

"Ino-pig, you're such a drama queen! You always exaggerate everything!"

"Ha ha, Sakura, very funny. You're a huge hypocrite- you're the drama queen…"

The fight continued for about twenty minutes during which Hinata fell asleep, Neji began listening to his, if things make sense, non-existent iPod, and Tenten woke up. Sa- Wait, did I just say Tenten woke up? Oh, OK. Ino, after a particularly vicious remark, looked at the bed to find a fully awake Tenten staring at them amusedly.

"Tennie!!! You woke up!!! See, big fore headed freak, I told you that you'd wake her!"

"Well, pig, I wasn't the one that-," started Sakura, before being interrupted by our favorite weapon wielding brunette.

"I'm perfectly fine, guys. What happened?" she asked. Neji, who was the only one who knew the details, smirked.

"You came out of your room because the smoke alarm was beeping and you thought your apartment was on fire. You ran into the wall and passed out." The three girls around him giggled while Tenten blushed deeply and scowled, before blinking and asking "Was there a fire?"

"No, you just hadn't changed the smoke alarm's battery in about a year and a half, so that beep was a warning."

"Oh." Sakura, Ino, and Hinata were giggling until they looked at Tenten's red face, when they burst out in hysterical laughter, and then Tenten did too. All four looked at Neji who was sitting solemnly in the corner, and started laughing harder. All in all, the laughing spell took about eight minutes, after which Tenten glanced at the clock.

"Guys!!! It's already two in the afternoon! I missed team training!"

"We're rescheduling for Thursday," said an annoyed Neji, after suffering through the girl's laughter fit. Tenten rolled her eyes at her still uptight ex-team mate.

"Well, girls, since it's already two, like Tennie said, why don't we just hang out? I have an appointment with Botan-kun today, so you girls can come along!" said the happy blonde, before grabbing Hinata and Tenten and dragging them out of the hospital, Sakura following.

Before leaving, Tenten shot the only male a helpless glance, asking for help, but he didn't even smirk. His face stayed absolutely neutral as she was dragged against her will to hell itself. OK, maybe that was a small exaggeration, but he should have at least smirked! She couldn't believe how easily he became an ice cube again, like he had been during their time as genin team mates, with Lee and Gai. She had no more time to wade through the jumbled mess that was her mind as she had been let go as soon as they got out of the hospital.

"Well, Botan-kun always loves a couple extra guests, so let's go!" Five minutes later, they had arrived at a small, boutique-looking shop. Ino ushered them inside. Once they were in the shop, they saw a short guy, probably about five feet and seven inches with well styled dark brown hair, green eyes, a big smile, and an odd voice.

"So anyways, I was like 'Honey, oh no you didn't' and she just looked at me with those big sad eyes of hers and I was like 'It's OK, you didn't mean to,'" he said, trailing off as soon as he saw Ino, dropping his scissors and running away from the lady who's hair he had just been cutting. Assistants ran about, one taking over his position, knowing he needed to take care of Ino.

"Ino darling! You brought me some new prey, and don't they just look delicious." Seeing the horrified look on the faces of his guests, he grinned and said "Aw, I'm just kidding, but sweetie, I could work miracles on these girls. Gorgeous, the lot of you!" Looking at the others who were cowering behind her, she smiled.

"We'd love a haircut; make over, the whole deal, Botan-kun, if you could squeeze us in." The blond smiled at her friend before he snapped and four workers came over to stand beside him.

"Now, these are some extremely important customers, so take very good care of them. Ino-chan, honey, would you like to give me a few pointers on what we'd like to do with them? It's not every day I get to work with a genius such as your self!" By this point, the girls were giggling at the odd hair dresser, who had led them to four chairs.

They started with Ino herself. She took down her long blonde hair and cut the front of the left side so it swept under her chin. **(AN: Look to my profile for a picture of the new haircut, same with the rest of the girls because I'm not so good at describing these things) **The rest was left long, curling outwards at the tips. An assistant applied a bright pink blush with sky blue eye shadow and a hint of mascara.

"So, which one of you lovely ladies is next?" asked the brunette male, at which point Sakura smiled and waved one finger in the air. He snapped twice this time. All of the assistance went over to her and began to work, Botan and Ino following.

When they were done, Sakura had light bangs that went to her eye brows, just about. The next section was about four inches longer. The final part came almost to her shoulders, framing her face. Light blush that matched her hair to an extreme, and green eye shadow that made her eyes sparkle was all of the make up that she was given.

"Ah, Hyuuga-san! This will be great!" **(A/N: It would be my assumption that lots of the village is able to recognize the Hyuuga heir, and would be treating her with respect)** "What to do with you?" Ino and Botan huddled together and whispered, making exaggerated gestures and pointing at the girl in question for about three minutes, at which point they began to instruct the assistants.

The end result had her with dark bangs to the side of her face, thick and curved. The rest of her hair was simply wetted and scrunched so that it curled. She was given bright blush like Ino's and light purple eye shadow which brought out the lavender undertones in her eyes.

"How do you like it, Hyuuga-san?" Every one looked at her waiting to see if she approved of her own new look. To the surprise of everyone in the room, Hinata got up and playfully whacked him on the head.

"Botan-kun, I told you its Hinata-chan!" The Hyuuga heiress giggled before resuming her seat. He smiled happily and moved on to his final 'victim' of the day, Tenten.

"Now, now, take your hair down!" Before she could protest, Sakura and Ino moved with speed only a trained ninja can accomplish to take down her hair, but Tenten didn't want it to happen like that. She grabbed both of their wrists in mid air, merely saying "Fine, but **I **want to do it, so you two can just shoo." She waved her friends off, mentally thanking her spandex wearing team mate for the speed training. Botan and his helpers just blinked, unsure of what just happened, before continuing. The man walked towards Ino.

"I have a FABULOUS idea for her!" Botan squealed before whispering it in Ino's ear. She smiled.

"THAT WOULD BE UBER CUTE! I LOVE IT!" Ino squealed, obviously liking her friend's suggestion. "Let's get started!" Botan snapped three times and his assistants all ran to him. As he talked, they began to smile. They all picked up their scissors and moved towards a frightened Tenten. Thirty minutes later, they were done.

Her long hair fell in delicate curls that twisted into each other in an endless sea of hair, which was incredibly thick. They applied some blush, which accentuated her high cheek bones. Her eye shadow was bronze, and her mascara made her dark eyelashes seem longer. All in all, the four looked gorgeous.

* * *

Two hours later, the girls were dressed in what Ino claimed was 'going out clothes'. She had an almost invisible mini-skirt in black with ruffles on the bottom, making her hair and eyes seem lighter. She had on a blue cami with lace on the top and bottom that matched her eyes. Otherwise, she looked the same as before. 

Sakura had the same skirt in dark blue. Her shirt was a greenish blue tank top that had thicker straps.

Tenten was in a crème version of the skirt. Her top was amazingly, a cami in gold that sparkled as she moved, showing hidden curves. **(A/N: It's a girl!)**

Last but not least was Hinata. She wore the skirt in pure white. A lavender tank top showed off her eyes, and her curves.

All of the girls wore ballet flats that matched their own top. They had Ino to thank, who had apparently bought the outfits previously with the girls in mind.

The plan was to go to a club called 'Hirumi's' which was a shinobi and kunoichi only club. Sakura had called Naruto, Ino called Chouji, Hinata called Shino, and Tenten called Lee to ask if they wanted to come/invite their other team mates and if so, meet them there at six thirty. The current time was six thirty, and they were still at Ino's house. Sakura had just realized this.

"Crap!" Seeing the black stares her friends were directing at her, she motioned towards the clock. They gasped before rushing out the door. Four minutes later they arrived.

* * *

When the girls arrived, they found Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Chouji, Shino, Kiba, Lee, and Neji waiting by the door. They were greeted by a chorus of 'heys' and 'hns' and 'hi's'. After some random conversations, they made their way inside, where they sat at one big table. The order was Sakura, Ino, Shikarmaru, Chouji, Shino, Kiba, Hinata, Naruto, Lee, Tenten, Neji, and finally Sasuke. (The table is round) 

They entertained themselves by chatting and watching the brave ninjas who attempted karaoke. After a particularly hilarious rendition of 'Respect' by Anko, Ino was struck by 'a random burst of sheer genius', as she referred to it afterwards.

"Hey, Tenten, you need to sing something. Same with you Hinata!" Ino hadn't mentioned herself or Sakura because compared to their two friends, they had absolutely no talent in the vocal department what so ever.

"No, no." the girls objected, embarrassed. After many attempts at convincing, Ino turned to their other friends. "We'll take a vote!"

"All in favor of Hinata and Tenten singing say 'Aye'." Aye's were heard from Naruto, Lee, Kiba, Ino, Sakura, and surprisingly Shino.

"Nay?" Hinata and Tenten. She sighed. "Who doesn't care?" Chouji, Sasuke, Neji, and Shikamaru. "OK, girls, get up there and sing your hearts out! As a matter of fact, we'll come up too just to help. Won't we, forehead?"

"Yes, pig, we will."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, the curtain came up to reveal a smiling, albeit nervous, Hinata. 

"Woot! Hinata-chan rocks! Believe it!" screamed… (Three guesses) Naruto. He was shushed from all of his friends. "Shhh!!!"

And then she stood up. Every one was shocked. Their sweet little Hinata was in a black dress that seemed to be from another era, elegant and gorgeous. Soft piano playing began.

_I'm so tired of being here_

_Suppressed by all of my childish fears_

_And if you have to leave,_

_I wish that you would just leave_

_Because you're presence still lingers here_

_And it won't leave me alone_

She smiled sadly at this point and even Naruto knew that she was talking about him in that last part.

_These wounds won't seem to heal_

_This pain is just too real_

_There's just too much that time cannot erase _

_When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears_

_When you screamed I'd fight away all of your fears_

_I held your hand through all of these years_

_And you still have_

_All of me_

During the last verse, (which was the chorus) her voice gained power until the sound of her voice was all you could hear. Still, she continued.

_You used to captivate me_

_By your resonating light_

_Now I'm bound by the life you left behind_

_You're face, it haunts my once pleasant dreams_

_Your voice, it chased away the_

_All the sanity in me_

At the end, her voice took on a quality very few of them had felt from her: anger.

_These wounds won't seem to heal_

_This pain is just too real_

_There's just too much that time cannot erase_

_When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears_

_When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears_

_I held your hand through all of these years_

_But you still have_

_All of me_

_I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone_

_But though your still with me_

_I've been alone all along_

She stared straight at Naruto, who met her gaze, hesitantly. She glared before going on.

_When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears_

_When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears_

_I've held your hand through all of these years_

_But you still have _

_All of me_

The crowd clapped loudly as Hinata made her way backstage, and the curtains lowered. Then they raised and Tenten came on. She was on a stool with skinny jeans and a tight fitting, dark, long sleeved T-shirt. Like Hinata with anger, Tenten was more solemn then her friends had ever seen her before.

_Nobody knows  
Nobody knows but me  
That I sometimes cry  
If I could pretend that I'm asleep  
When my tears start to fall  
I peek out from behind these walls  
I think nobody knows  
Nobody knows no_

She could see her self crying out about the unfairness of her life years ago. 'Nobody Knows' described her whole life better then any of her friends would have ever guessed.She looked at Neji who looked like he wasn't even paying attention and fumed.

_It's win or lose not how you play the game  
And the road to darkness has a way  
Of always knowing my name  
But I think nobody knows  
No no  
Nobody knows no no no no_

_Baby  
Oh the secret's safe with me  
There's nowhere else in the world that I could ever be  
And baby don't it feel like I'm all alone  
Who's gonna be there after the last angel has flown  
And I've lost my way back home  
And oh no no no no  
Nobody knows  
No no no no no no_

_Tomorrow I'll be there my friend  
I'll wake up and start all over again  
When everybody else is gone  
No no no_

Every one in the room was staring at her, but she only had eyes for Neji. She was waiting for him to at least look at her! She had been so nervous, so excited, for that reaction!! Screw him. Bastard. She stood up and stormed off the stage.

Five minutes later both of the nervous girls walked back to their table, amidst cheers and smiles.

"Good job, guys! You sounded amazing!" commented Sakura. Shino just nodded at Hinata, Kiba gave her a giant hug, and Naruto, while everyone else was preoccupied, got up and walked away. Tenten was greeted similarly, but Neji was just sipping his coke, uncaring.

She felt that now familiar surge of annoyance at him, never paying her any attention, so mean. While this was happening, Hinata noticed Naruto's disappearance.

"I'll be right back guys." She received nods, and made her way outside. _If I was Naruto, and trying not to be found by myself, where would I hide?_ The answer came to her, and she ran to the woods.

Finally she was there. She activated the Byakugan, which enabled her to see the standing figure that was Naruto in front of a clearing.

"Hello, Naruto-kun." He turned around to look at the approached girl, who had de-activated her Byakugan.

"Hinata," he said blankly.

"What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? So much is wrong! Why are you so mad? What did I do? Just tell me! Stop playing games, Hinata."

The Hyuuga heiress was fuming. If Naruto was mad, she was insanely mad. "I can't believe you! Why I'm mad? Why I'm mad? What the (insert colorful language) is wrong with you? Don't tell me that you're so dense you actually don't know what I'm talking about!"

"Yes, Hinata, I guess I am that dense, what ever. Just say what ever it is that you need to say! Stop beating around the bush!"

She was right in front of him, about three inches away. He was surprised. _How'd she come up here so quickly?_ Their eyes met. Blue widened at the sight of the confidence with in the eyes of his companion. She spoke.

"I love you, Naruto-kun. I know you love Sakura-chan, I understand and respect that, but I couldn't keep going with out telling you. It's only fair that you know, because nearly everyone else in the village does. I've tried to make it obvious, I've asked you on DATES, and what do you do? You start talking about Sakura! All of that changing? All of my hard work? It was for YOU! Asshole!" She laughed at the wide eyed expression on his face.

He blinked a couple of times, and then, when he came back to his senses, she was gone.

* * *

**A/N: I'm splitting this chapter in half! Haha! Sorry guys! I've worked really hard on this. Remember to check my profile for the skirt, and hair cuts. 10 reviews!**


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